Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year to you All. Yes 2012 is all but over, so I want to take this opportunity to wish you all A Very Happy 2013. I have a number of cards for today. To get them all in I will just show the card and most of the stamps . No commentary today. So let's go.

I think that's enough for this time. Thanks to all who sent these cards. Good Luck in the coming year.
Take care, but before I go, a couple of housekeeping duties :

1- Congratulations to Postcrossing. Postcrossing was started on July 14th, 2005. Today, Dec 31, 2012, the 15,000,000 card was received through this project. It was just this past January that Postcard # 10,000.000 was received. That is quite the increase in less than a year. Hats off to Postcrossing. Join at www.postcrossing.com , it's Free.

2- If you haven't already done so, please check out my request in the Dec 8th, 2012 update . If you can help, that would be great.

3- I'm looking forward to the new stamps from Canada Post in early Jan, 2013. The Year of the Snake stamps are Outstanding. Perhaps you'll be lucky and receive a card from me with the Snake stamp. I'm even going to enjoy sending them , I can't imagine receiving one. The souvenir sheet of 1 international stamp is Mind Blowing. Here is a picture of it , just to tease you.
Remember , I'm open to offers

Saturday, December 29, 2012

I seem to have a little spare time this afternoon , so what better way to spend it - with postcards.I won't commit to a specific number of cards , we'll just see how it goes. Today's first card is from Hillegom, Netherlands , a town of 20,000 plus located in western Netherlands. The "This Way "sign on the card is actually in Kyoto, Japan. Monique wrote that she loves to travel and I guess This Way is the best way to go.

Now we have a card posted in Ekaterinburg or Yekaterinburg, depending on which you prefer. The city of 1.3 million people , the 4th largest city in Russia, is located in the middle of the Eurasian continent. Daria writes that the picture on the card is from a local artist and represents the collisions of Russian culture : a monuments to Communism and an Orthodox Cathedral, facing each other.

Daria used 2 large stamps on her card. The left stamp is from 2011 and celebrates 225 Years of Insurance in Russia. The stamp on the right was issued this year and celebrates 1150 Years of the Russian State.

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My next card is from China. It shows a Pink Frangipani.

The flower is well-known for its intensely fragrant,

lovely, spiral-shaped, reddish blooms which appear at

branch tips . The tree

itself is rather unusual in appearance; the 12 to 20-

inch-long, coarse, deciduous leaves cluster only at the

tips of the rough, blunt, sausage-like, thick, grey-green

branches. Branches are upright and rather crowded on

the trunk forming a vase or umbrella shape with age.

They are rather soft and brittle and can break but are

usually sturdy unless they are mechanically hit or

disturbed. The crown loses its leaves for a short time

during the winter displaying the coarse-textured,

stubby branches. A milky sap is exuded from the

branches when they are bruised .

My card arrived with 2 copies of the high value in a set of 5 featuring musical instruments. On this stamp the instrument is called a Horsehead. The set was issued in 2002.

Strasbourg, France is featured on this next card . On it we see the Astronomical Clock of the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is the highest still standing structure built entirely in the middle ages. Although the Cathedral dates from 1439, the clock only dates from 1843.

Dominique used a recent 2012 stamp, 1 of which I think was issued in a souvenir sheet of 2 different stamps .

Thanks to Monique, Daria and Dominique for their cards. Take care, see you soon. I might be able to squeeze one more update in to close out 2012. Enjoy your cards.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Here I am back with another blog update. This one has great cards from great places adorned with great stamps. Let's start with a card that arrived in my mailbox on Christmas Eve. It is from DPRK , North Korea. It was postmarked in Pyongyang on 24Nov2012. The front of the card shows, well, truly I don't have any idea of what it shows. I guess it's some sort of propaganda statue .

Leo, who in the past has sent postcards from Bhutan, sent this one from The Hermit Kingdom. He used 3 large , wonderful stamps. The stamp on the left was issued in 2008 to mark 60 Years as a Democratic Republic. ( their words not mine ) The stamp from a set of 5 shows 3 winged horses in flight. The other 2 face same stamps were issued in 2010 and celebrate the New Year . They show the normal theme for stamps there, patriotic propaganda statues.

Thank you Leo, I hope you see this some time, but with a lack of internet in DPRK, I doubt that it will be soon. As a postcard collector, getting a card from North Korea is just wonderful. I know that when I started my collecting , I thought that a card from DPRK would be next to impossible, and now this one numbers three in my collection. So everything is possible.

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My second card for this time is from French Guiane or officially just Guyane. It is an overseas region of France on the North Atlantic coast of South America. It shares borders with Brazil and Suriname. Jean Pierre's card is a look at Ile Royale, a small island off shore, one of the Iles du Salut.

Since Guyane is an overseas region of France, French stamps are the norm there. Jean Pierre used a 2012 La Pointe Saint Mathieu stamp on the left and a 20 gram Priority Letter rate stamp on the right.

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Here's a card from Aruba, a place I have been , and would love to return . Aruba is in the southern Caribbean Sea and is located just 27 km north of Venezuela. It is one of the ABC Islands group and along with the Netherlands, Curacao and Sint Maarten, is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. David's card shows Natural Pool, located on the north, windward coast. It's a great spot for swimming and diving.

The stamp on top was issued in 2007 and is from a set of 14 definitives. The bottom stamp is from 2006 and 1 of 3 in a set celebrating 20 Years of Hi-Winds, the windsurfing and kiteboarding event.

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Next we have a very colorful Airline/Aircraft postcard. It's a South African Airways Boeing 747 in a special livery for that country's 2004 Olympic Games bid. It has since been repainted in the usual SAA livery.

Bruce used 3 Handicrafts definitives from a set of 27 issued in 2010.

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The sunny South Coast of Sri Lanka is featured on this next postcard.

Ravindra used 5 quite large stamps on this card. The 4 flower stamps were issued on Oct 7, 2012 as a Flowers of Sri Lanka set.

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Another Airline/Aircraft card is next. This one is an Air Malta Boeing 737-300 in front of Malta International Airport.

Jean Pierre used 3 large and new 2012 stamps for this one. The stamp on the far right is 1 in a definitive set of 2.The other 2 stamps are from set of 4 City Gates issue.

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Last card for this time is another Sri Lankan card , again compliments of Ravindra. This one is a little special as it has a postmark date of 2012-12-12. We'll never see that one again. The card is of Ruwanveliseya Dagoba, Anuradhapura, the ancient city that lies 205 km north of Colombo. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was inscribed as such in 1982.

Ravindra used the 2012 Christmas stamp and here it is.

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So ends another great update. Thanks to Ravindra, Jean Pierre, David, Leo and Bruce for all these great cards. Don't forget , if you are reading this, and haven't done so yet, please check out my blog for December 8th, 2012 and if possible, send a postcard to Humber Elementary. The kids will certainly appreciate a card.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Once
again as Christmas Day is just about upon us, I want to take this
opportunity to wish all my fellow postcard collectors , cover and stamp
collectors and bloggers , along with all my readers a very Merry
Christmas. My Christmas wishes for all of you are once again summed up in
the 3 Christmas stamps issued by Canada Post in 2007. Hope , Joy, and Peace. What more could we ask for ?

Actually there is one more thing that we can ask, that would make for a better Christmas and Future for us all and that is a little more Gun Control, no make that a Lot More Gun Control, to honor The Shady Hook Twenty Six.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Today's update has cards from India, Turkey, Austria, the U.S.A. and China. But first things first. I have to offer up Big Thanks to Michael and Leslie.
Thank you both for agreeing to send a postcard to Humber Elementary School
for their World Cultures Postcard Project. I appreciate it and I'm sure
they will also. Now for those just reading about the project , you still
have lots of time to help them out. You can read all about the project
in my update dated Saturday, Dec 8th, 2012. Give it a read , send a
postcard.

Now on to the postcards at hand. Let's start with Turkey. The card is of the Ortakoy Mosque and the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. The card itself was posted in Maltepe, Ankara.

A Postcrosser named Bilgen sent this card and used a 2012 definitive with tab. It is 1 of 3 in a set.

Next is this card from India. It is a decorated Nandi Bull , a common sight in Goa state. He appears to be enjoying a serenade from one of the locals.

This card is also a Postcrossing card , sent by Aditya. His stamp is 1 of 2 issued this year for Warli & Shekhawati Paintings. This one is a nice elephant stamp for topical collectors.

My third card was posted in Austria's capital of Vienna. It is of the Stift Melk, a Benedictine Abbey and very famous church located at the beginning of the Wachau Valley. The Wachau was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.

Another Postcrosser, Christina, sent this one along. Before I go any further, let me say all cards today are from Postcrossers. There. Christina used a new 2012 stamp featuring Bernardo Strozzi's painting Sleeping Child.

This next card is from cardiffgal, a Postcrosser living in San Diego, Ca. It's a reproduction of one of Uwe Ommer's photographs. The photo has also been reproduced in the new book of Uwe Ommer's photographs recently published by Benedikt Taschen Verlag. The photos in the book called Black Ladies are absolutely stunning.

cardiffgal used a 2003 American Clock stamp along with a 2009 Zion National Park, Utah stamp.

My last card for this time is from Nelly in Hangzhou in Eastern China. I guess because I collect postcards of mailboxes or postboxes, Nelly sent this card with a number of different types.

Nelly used a number of great stamps including a 1995 Elephants stamp, It is 1 of 2 in the issue, a joint issue with Thailand.

So goes another update. Hope you got something out of it. Thanks to Nelly, cardiffgal, Christina, Aditya, and Bilgen for the cards. Thanks for reading and don't forget a postcard for Humber Elementary .